


Like Shooting Stars

by sleepismyfriend



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-28
Updated: 2010-06-28
Packaged: 2017-10-10 21:45:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepismyfriend/pseuds/sleepismyfriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They can believe that there are such things as stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Shooting Stars

**Author's Note:**

> In the universe with no stars, during the series five finale 'The Big Bang'.

There are no such things as stars.

Amelia Pond knows this to be a forgone conclusion. Her aunt has told her as well as her aunt's friends when they bother to stop and pay attention. Her friends at school think she's absolutely bonkers for drawing things around the moon in art class. She knows this because she's heard the whispers, and continues to ask for the yellow paint anyway.

The cloak of night sky looms over her head as she lies across the half-muddy grass, her red rain boots crossed at the ankles. She's supposed to be upstairs. Maths, she hates the subject and it hates her and she wonders when is she ever going to clue her teachers in on the fact that she has no use for something so time consuming.

Stars. That's the subject that she wishes to study now. Except that they're not real, and she's going to have a hard time explaining to her aunt in a way that makes sense.

And, she's already tried, _twice_.

It's okay not to make sense though, she surmises, based on her aunt's rambling that it wouldn't do to think about such nonsense. Because if she closes her eyes and tries hard enough, she can feel the traces of white pulsing energy from a burning gas giant surrounding her and it is enough to make her believe.

"And just what are you up to?" A familiar voice floats down, breaking her from her thoughts, and Amelia looks up to see one of her favourite people in the entire world.

"Nothing." Amelia smiles, pulling her tiny arms out from under her head as she sits up and places her palms in the grass.

"I see. Well, if you're going to be out here, it doesn't do not to have your jacket." She holds out Amelia's navy jacket, and Amelia takes it. Sarah smiles before bending down to join her. She isn't afraid of a little mud. "Your aunt is looking for you, you know. Something about homework?"

Amelia sighs.

"I know." She brushes her hair out of her jacket collar and buttons up most of the buttons that she can reach from this particular angle. She'll fiddle with the rest when she stands, knowing that her aunt will be cross with her if she enters the house not fully buttoned. "I'll go in a minute."

"So," Sarah says, crossing her own ankles and leaning her forearms on her knees as she studies the sky above her. The black veil is a comfort for Sarah, and always has been though she is certain she could never fully explain why. "What are we looking at?"

"The moon."

"Really? Just the moon? Nothing else?" Sarah teases, knowing of Amelia's penchant for the mythical balls of plasma and never ceasing to mock her or her belief for them. How could she when she thought about it, bordering on the edge of her mind, herself?

"Do you ever think about them, Sarah Jane?"

"All the time." If anyone is to blame for Amelia's obsession with stars, it had to be Sarah. What started as an innocent story at bedtime was never meant to be anything more, no matter what Sarah believes.

She knows Amelia's imagination and loves her even more for it.

"What if, what if they were real? What if you could feel them? Touch them? Stand inside them and know that they're alive?" Amelia lies back down, wanting to feel the ground under her head and the moon above her, shining down through the clear sky.

"I don't know that I'd want to be that close, really." Sarah looks up, scanning the black and thinking that she's had a similar conversation like this one before only to throw out the idea when her memory couldn't recall the details. "Too hot. I'd much rather stand back and view them from a distance."

"What kind of fun is that?"

"The un-fun but safe kind."

"Here." Sarah feels the tug of her hand, and knows the request even before Amelia asks it. She scoots down until she's lying next to Amelia. "Close your eyes, Sarah Jane."

Sarah complies, and Amelia smiles. This is one of the things that she loves about her aunt's friend; her willingness to go along for whatever adventure she might suggest.

"Alright, Amelia." Sarah's familiar with this game as her head is angling towards Amelia's, her hand wrapped around hers. "Where are we off to this time?"

"Imagine a world in which stars of all shapes and sizes litter the night sky." Her eyes are shut as well. "Where the moon and the sun aren't alone any more."

Sarah has struggled before, to remember such a picture. She knows that it is entirely possible that at some point in time that this has existed, but again, her memory is failing her. Maybe, it really is a dream that she will never figure out. "They hide during the day and appear at night. The clouds take turns protecting them from us as much as the clouds protect us from them."

Sarah opens her eyes and sees herself standing in a grassy field with a night sky full of random patterns and shapes that she could only ever dream of and not a cloud in sight. A cool breeze rustles the trees and leaves around her as she looks up. A pattern of four shaped in a w, another shaped in the form of a ladle, and a third one that begins with three stars in a row.

She laughs, feeling the sheer excitement course through her veins. She feels like she's seen this all before, and will see it again someday. She feels a tiny hand in hers, and looks down to see Amelia standing with her, looking up with the same eyes.

"Well, what do you think?" She motions upward with her finger. "Everything to your liking?"

"Oh, yes, it's beautiful."

"I think so." She smiles, glancing up at the sky as though it was an old friend, though she could never explain it. Not in a million years.

"This is definitely the kind of Earth I want to live on, Sarah Jane."

"Me too." Sarah swings their hands back and forth, and they laugh for several seconds before hearing the harsh reality of Amelia's aunt, who's standing at the back door and shouting at both of them. They open their eyes slow and roll to their sides, looking over at one another with a smile as Sarah squeezes Amelia's hand.

They can believe there are such things as stars.


End file.
